researchers did a study. they started by looking at city and town birth records from 1879. they didn't expect to find many centenarians (hundred-year-old) in the records, so they were very surprised to find so many old and healthy people living in Okinawa. the United, for example, has 10 centenarians per 100,000 people. in Okinawa there are 34 centenarians per 100,000 people